Another teen accused of being involved in notorious ransomware gang Scattered Spider has been arrested, this time in the US for his alleged involvement in the Las Vegas casino hacks that took place in September 2023.

The teenage boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons due to his age, surrender to the Clar County Juvenile Detention Centre in Las Vegas on 17 September. He was charged for several computer-based crimes, including three counts of using personal identifying information to harm or impersonate others, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of extortion, and one count of unlawful activity using computers.

He is being charged for cyber-attacks which targeted MGM and Caesars, which employed social engineering tactics and mainly targeted the third-party IT service used by company, Okta.

The hackers used vishing calls to target Okta’s IT service desk workers, who were convinced to reset their multifactor authentication tools. The hackers could then use this compromise to gain access to other systems, such as Microsoft Azure, before they launched their ransomware attacks.

For MGM, the cyber-attack disrupted hotel room keys and slot machines, as well as booking systems, costing the resort $100m.

Caesar Entertainment saw their loyalty programme’s database compromised, with hackers able to export personal data. It remains unknown if Caesar’s ended up paying a ransom for this data, but the firm said it managed to confirm the data had been deleted.

Recommended reading

• Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters Say They Are Shutting Down
• Two Teens Charged For Transport for London Cyber-Attack
• How Scattered Spider’s Web Brought UK Retail to its Knees

The teen boy is not the first of Scattered Spider’s web to go down for the hack – five others were charged last November, including a UK citizen, along with four Americans.

Two other UK citizens are facing charges for their alleged involvement in the cyber-attack that hit Transport for London last year, as more and more teens are exposed as being part of the malicious cyber network.

However, Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, a splinter group from three prolific ransomware groups, recently announced their retirement and shut down of operations, naming Scattered Spider as an affiliate that was also closing shop.

It does remain to be seen, however, if this is just a tactic to keep law enforcement off their backs as more members are charged, and the growing issue of teens committing cyber-crimes is exposed.